Hit a bump on the road yesterday -- a gap on the pavement transitioning from smooth asphalt to a concrete overpass section. The impact resulted in a crack on my AX Lightness stem. Luckily, the stem still held the bar in place and did not cause an accident. It was an older model -- not the latest version of the Zeus.

A new AX stem will realistically take a couple of months to obtain (door to door from Germany to the U.S.). Can anyone recommend an alternative lightweight stem? I was thinking the Extralite Road UL3 stem -- it's not carbon but is only a few grams heavier than the AX and Fairwheel has them in stock. It also has a fully detachable clamp on the front so I won't have to remove the shifters in order to install the bar. Need one with a 26mm clamping diameter.

Any other recommendations would be appreciated. Thx.

Last edited by audiophilitis on Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.

My Zeus cracked as well and I replaced it with an Extralite. 3g heavier and no slippage problems like I had with my Zeus. I agree Extralite is definitely the best alternative. It's a beautiful looking bit of kit too.

Thanks for all the feedback. I will go with the Extralite as suggested by the vast majority.

Serbelo, the crack developed around the section that clamps the bar -- near the location of the bolts. They look like stress cracks and are on both sides. I will retire this stem and chuck it up to cost of doing business. There are downsides to building an uber lightweight bike and this is one of them -- but I still think the advantages far outweigh the few disadvantages.

I'm just very thankful that this did not result in a crash as I would have taken down at least 5 other riders.

Do you have a photo of the cracks? I'm interested in a visual. Thanks.

_________________“I always find it amazing that a material can actually sell a product when it’s really the engineering that creates and dictates how well that material will behave or perform.” — Chuck Teixeira

Hit a bump on the road yesterday -- a gap on the pavement transitioning from smooth asphalt to a concrete overpass section. The impact resulted in a crack on my AX Lightness stem. Luckily, the stem still held the bar in place and did not cause an accident. It was an older model -- not the latest version of the Zeus.

A new AX stem will realistically take a couple of months to obtain (door to door from Germany to the U.S.). Can anyone recommend an alternative lightweight stem? I was thinking the Extralite Road UL3 stem -- it's not carbon but is only a few grams heavier than the AX and Fairwheel has them in stock. It also has a fully detachable clamp on the front so I won't have to remove the shifters in order to install the bar. Need one with a 26mm clamping diameter.

Any other recommendations would be appreciated. Thx.

Dear Audiophilitis, i feel sorry for the crack in your stem. You said, it would be a earlier version ? May i ask you to send me a picture of the crack with infos about its age ? We might be able to help you. My adress is: axel.schnura@ax-lightness.de

Last year i ride the combo ax lightness roadbar with the Zeus stem. I mount it with carbon pasta...but every time there was a bad road (i life in Belgium) like kobbelstones it give a hard "crack" and the roadbar turn down! Not happy when you pay more than 1000euro for that combo! I ride now a syntace f99 with Ti bolts without issues and the f99 is a fraction of the price of a zeus stem!And to test the new stem "rigid" i won't pay again almost 600euro...also it is oversized and i like the shape of my ax4000 wich is diam 26!

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